ACTIVIST

The Centre for Social Innovation is a dynamic space in downtown Toronto, Canada. Our mission is to spark and support new ideas that are tackling the social, environmental, economic and cultural challenges we face today. We’re creating the spaces that social innovation needs to thrive and we’re contributing a few of our own ideas along the way!

Market Initiative’s role in this world is to shift consumption patterns of industrial paper consumers so that their purchases do not destroy ancient and endangered forests such as Canada’s Boreal, temperate rainforests and the tropical forests. They work with companies to shift the demand for paper products to sustainable options. And if those options do not currently exist we work collaboratively with major paper purchasers and throughout the supply chain to create the demand that brings alternatives into existence.

The CJFE is a Canadian non-governmental organization supported by Canadian journalists and advocates of free expression. The purpose of the organization is to defend the rights of journalists and contribute to the development of media freedom throughout the world. CJFE recognizes these rights are not confined to journalists and strongly supports and defends the broader objective of freedom of expression in Canada and around the world.

Toronto Arts Council is an arm’s length body that supports the development, accessibility and excellence of the arts in Toronto. Toronto Arts Council offers grants programs to the city’s arts organizations and professional artists. These programs, funded through the City of Toronto invest in a broad range of activities from individual creation and small start-up projects to some of Canada’s largest and most renowned arts institutions.

Canadians don’t have an electoral system that directly reflects the ballot box. With our ‘first-past-the-post’ electoral system, vote splitting means Canadians end up with a majority Harper Government with as little as 35 percent of the popular vote. This is not the outcome most Canadians want, and avoiding it requires voter knowledge and cooperation.In the last election voteforenvironment.ca was the go-to site for nearly half a million unique visitors who clicked in time and again to determine how they could mark their ballot to get an acceptable electoral outcome. If you were one of those 440,000 – congratulations, it worked! On the last day that public opinion polls were available, the VFE website model showed that the Conservatives were on track to win 152 seats, but on Monday, they were elected in 143. Our analysis shows thousands of visits to our advice regarding the candidate with the best chance to beat the Conservative in key ridings.ProjectDemocracy.ca builds on voteforenvironment.ca. The stakes for our environment were very high in 2008, and remain at risk. Since then it has become even clearer that Harper is prepared to ignore the basic tenets of our democracy to keep in power and pursue his ideological agenda. For all those who care deeply about our democracy, stopping the Harper machine is job one.

Green Enterprise Toronto

ALICE’S ROLE – BOARD MEMBER

GET was a network of local, independent enterprises and customers in the Toronto region that were committed to: a strong community a healthy environment providing meaningful employment buying local first. GET was a part of an international alliance of thousands of like-minded people who are building local living economies, one enterprise at a time.